


one real thing

by mcmeekin



Series: bruises [2]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Gen, well at least it mentions aisha and heavily talks about aisha so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 16:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3698561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmeekin/pseuds/mcmeekin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some part of his brain yells at him to stop comparing her to Aisha. He ignores that part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one real thing

At least they don’t look alike. That would have just been unendingly cruel on the universe’s part.

In fact, they aren't alike at all. Tanya is rash when Aisha would have been patient. Tanya is loud when Aisha would have been quiet. Tanya is hard when Aisha would have been soft. Tanya stands in a spotlight when Aisha would have stayed in the shadows.

Tanya is wrong when Aisha would have been right.

Adam tells him that he’s being unfair, that it’s not Tanya’s fault that Aisha left. And Rocky thinks that that’s not necessarily true. She could have said no. She could have _persuaded_ Aisha somehow. She could have done something besides take the damn crystal and walk into their lives like she had any right to. Adam has a dumb crush on her, anyway.

Tanya’s not even a good fighter. Of course, _Adam_ helps her train, but she’s still not very good. She’s always in his way. He finds himself picking up her slack, which annoys him. Picking up her slack somehow transfers to actively defending her, which annoys him even more. He doesn't wanna defend her; he doesn't like her.

Doesn't like the way she smiles, the way she laughs, the way she sings, the way she greets him every morning, the way she’s _nothing like Aisha in every sense_. She’s a constant reminder of what he’s lost forever, and she’s not even sensitive about it.

Maybe it’s because he’s watching her so closely, cataloging every little thing she does wrong that he notices it. Notices her wincing every few moments, notices her struggling to breathe regularly. It only takes him a few more minutes of observation to figure out what’s wrong. And, honestly, it’s not his problem, so he’s not going to get involved. Not his problem at all.

But her uneven breathing is annoying so that’s probably why he grabs her arm as they’re all leaving the Juice Bar to get her to hang back while the others go on ahead.

“You bruised your ribs, didn't you?” he asks. “Or broke them?”

She looks like she immediately wants to deny it but, after a moment, nods instead. “Probably broke.”

He nods curtly in return. “And you didn't think to tell a group of people who are basically masters in getting beaten up because…?”

She shrugs, avoiding his eyes. “I’m getting the hang of this. Dealing with my own injuries is part of that. You guys had to do it.”

He sighs, deeply, because he cannot believe what he is about to say. “Come by my house later, and I’ll show you how we fix broken ribs. And I won’t tell anyone that you got help.”

She looks shocked, and he’s kind of shocked too, to be honest. He doesn't wait for her response, opting instead to brush his way past her and out of the Youth Center.

He isn't sure if he’s surprised that she shows up. It’s just after dinner, so he yells to his mom about needing to finish a project with a friend in order to avoid dish duty and promptly takes Tanya up to his bathroom. As soon as they reach it, he pulls up the floorboard beneath his sink and pulls out what’s basically an extreme first aid kit. He’s pretty sure all the rangers have one at this point. It only takes him a minute of rooting around in it to find the pill bottle. He throws it at Tanya, who’s been standing in the doorway and hasn't said a word since she arrived, before going back to looking around in the box.

“What are these?” she asks with suspicion.

“Painkillers,” he responds without looking up. “Not prescription, but as close as you can get. Pretty much all the rangers use them when we come out of the worse end of a fight.” Finally, he finds what he’s looking for and closes the box. He gets up off the floor, holding the patch he dug out of the box. “All right, show me your ribs.”

Tanya, who had been inspecting the painkillers skeptically, looks at him sharply. “What?”

He rolls his eyes. “Relax, I’m just gonna put one of these hot/cold patch things on the place where the bruising is most severe. It’ll help; trust me.”

She still looks skeptical, but she lifts her shirt up slowly anyway, revealing the bruises speckling her left side. He winces a little. “Yeah, one of those is definitely broken.” Gently, he presses the hot/cold patch to the spot where the bruising looks the worst. He pulls back to admire his handy work and nods in satisfaction. She puts her shirt down and opens the bottle of painkillers, swallowing two dry before holding the bottle out to him. “Keep it,” he says. “I've got more. If you run out, the address of the organic store we find these at is on the bottle. They also carry the patches, if you want more.”

She’s looking at him strangely. “Where did you learn all of this?”

He shrugs, bending down to put his box back in the floor and slide the board back in place. “Jason sort of hand-me-downed a lot of the knowledge to me before he left.”

She quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Why tell me though? You hate me.”

He feels like maybe he should deny it, but he just laughs instead. “Wow, am I that incredibly unsubtle?” He grins up at her from where he’s taken a seat on the floor. She smiles wryly back and slowly sinks down to sit across from him. “Well,” he begins. “Since Aisha isn't really around to tell you all the ranger secrets, somebody’s gotta.”

Tanya smile softens. After a while, she says, “It’s okay.” He raises an eyebrow at her, silently telling her to continue. “That you hate me,” she clarifies. “I’d probably hate me, too, if I were you.”

He nods, drawing patterns on the floor with his index finger, avoiding her gaze. “Yeah.”

They’re both silent for far too long. Finally, she says, a bit quietly, “Is there any other ranger knowledge I might need to know?”

And maybe he spends another hour telling her things she needs to know because she _did_ ask, after all. And maybe he defends her a little harder in the fight two days later because of her injury, of course. Maybe he looks over her math homework when she asks because it’s the polite thing to do. Maybe he’s a little friendlier to her because she’s nice to him, and he should return the favor. Maybe he stops scrutinizing her so much because he's nowhere near perfect so she shouldn't have to be. Maybe he stops comparing her to Aisha so much because, well, Tanya and Aisha aren't very alike at all, are they?

(Tanya wouldn't leave without saying goodbye.)

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm apparently going through all the seasons and looking at the blue ranger/yellow ranger dynamic and how it applies to painful situations, whether those situations be physically or emotionally painful (or both? Mostly both). Apparently. Because this is what my 'I want to write' part of my brain is telling me to do so I'm doing it.  
> I've got a lot of partial story fragment for this series floating around in my drafts, but if you want to, like, request that I do a certain dynamic next or suggest a situation or something I will definitely hear you out. You can pop into the comments here or hop over to my tumblr (powerprincesses). Thanks for being rad.


End file.
